Auburn held a series of situational drills indoors Saturday morning that included some tackling and only a handful of running plays. Malzahn said he and offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee wanted to get one more look at the three quarterback candidates before choosing a starter. Decision day looms.

"We put them in some blitz pickup situations. We did 7 on 7. We ran our offense from the sideline and started to try to be as game-like as possible," Malzahn said. "I actually got on the sideline. We wanted to see how they reacted -- just with the way they handled their teammates, the way they handled calling out different things and all that. We learned a lot today."

Observers said Nick Marshall opened the practice with the first-team offense and remained with that group. Freshman Jeremy Johnson opened with the second-team offense, but soon was relieved by sophomore Jonathan Wallace.